Free Phonics Help & Printable Workbook

Teaching phonics does not have to mean an investment in expensive programs like Hooked on Phonics or A Beka phonics. Now I love A Beka phonics and I have been using it for years for each of my children. The initial investment has been well worth my money as I continue to use it year after year with my six children. However, if I had not already made this investment you would find me using a wonderful free website found at Starfall.

This program allows children to use basic computer skills (operating a mouse) to learn the letters of the alphabet, play some matching games, and teach them the phonetic sound. There is also a great workbook in two different handwriting fonts you can download to accompany this learning. (you will need adobe acrobat) Even if you are not on a tight budget I would seriously check this out.

ART: Where do I begin?

The definition of the word art is not a simple one. You can not have writing, architecture, magazine ads, television commercials, photographs, paintings, drawings or conversations with out it being a form of art. Indeed, because of its broad definition it can make deciding what you want to learn during art  time an overwhelming decision.

To begin with you must consider the following SHORT list of things before purchasing art curriculum/books. What goal do you hope to reach through art? Seriously, thing about it.

1. Do you want an art book that teaches basic drawing (like in Drawing Textbook by Bruce McIntyre), different art forms (sculpting, crafts, scrapbooking) , use of different media (pencil, crayon, paint, etc), or just an overall introduction to all of it.
2. How much money are you willing to spend for art supplies? Paint, brushes, clay, and other media can get quite costly especially if you are purchasing supplies for more than one student. (If there is a Hobby Lobby in your area they have great sales on art supplies in their weekly sale bill from time to time.)
3. Do you want to employ technical drawing (like blueprints)
4. Do you want your art to include history (like in Artistic Pursuits) plus all other media styles such as writing?
5. Do you want it to inspire creativity and freethinking?
6. How much time are you willing to spend? Obviously, things like painting and pottery take significantly longer than drawing with pencils and crayons.

Knowing what you want to do during art can greatly reduce the probability of picking a curriculum, workbook, or project that can become tedious. For example, this year I blindly purchased the Lamb’s Book of Art I. It had some great reviews and I looked through the sample pages online (which is not always a fair representation of a book) . At first we were more than excited and learned some good things but we were disenchanted with the latter half of the book when it began teaching forms of poetry and asking the children to write creative essays. Poetry and writing are definitely forms of art but not ones that I want to explore during our art time. What started as a fun experience turned to disappointment because we were not learning how to draw or paint.This could have been avoided if I had realized all that the word “art” could mean. Art is vast  rewarding subject and in the future I will more carefully weigh the methods I want to employ in teaching art to my children.

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.  ~Leonardo da Vinci

Handwriting Worksheet Generators

Today I’ve spent the day trying to reprioritize my schedule and goals. It always happens during the year that shifts in the books we are using and in chores and other routines ends up throwing us off our daily schedule which makes for just more than a little bit of chaos in the house.

After another morning of pandamonious schooling –the toddler being into everything, nursing the baby, answering questions on three different subjects going on at the time and the five year old whining that he was bored — I realized my schedule had been undermined and compromised. During lunch we had a board meeting pointing out the haphazard way our days were going and I pointed us all back to the schedule of peace and happy days.

This required me to be more diligent in finding preschool worksheets for my five year old. Since part of his boredom is waiting on his teacher to create worksheets for him (like writing his name) then I decided I need to find something to make that tedious task much more enjoyable. After doing a search and trying out several handwriting worksheet generators I settled on this one from Softschools.com as producing the most professional worksheet with multiple lines, ability to choose font size, page orientation, and more.

Ambleside Online

For those of us who use the Charlotte Mason approach I was introduced to this website last week by a good friend. I’m really excited about it! Here is the introduction from their website, it says it all.

Welcome to Ambleside Online, a free homeschool curriculum designed to be as close as possible to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason used in her own private and correspondence schools. Our goal is to be true to Charlotte Mason’s high literary standards. Ambleside Online uses the highest quality books and costs no more than the cost of texts. The curriculum uses as many free online books as possible, and there is no cost to use this information or join the support group.

A Good Laugh

Sometimes we can all use a good laugh! Thought you might enjoy this piece by fellow homeschooler and comedian Tim Hawkins!

What can I do with my non core 400 hours?

New homeschooling families who are learning the ropes often have the same questions. “Now that I’m homeschooling what do I do with those 400 non core hours?” Those 400 hours fall into the area of elective subjects.

Here is a short list of everything those non core hours could contain.

1. Foreign Language
2. Arts & Crafts
3. Music
4. Woodworking
5. Home Economics
6. Computers
7. Scrapbooking
8. Photography
9. Physical Education
10. Bible Study
11. Gardening (although this could easily go under science)
12. Household Management
13. Work Skills/Ethics
14. Animal Husbandry (another one that could easily go under science)
15. Learning a trade

Some of these are a little redundant but it is enough to give you an idea. Any hobby that you love and do on a frequent basis can fall into non core hours. When my daughter was younger she spent A LOT of time learning sign language as it was her new interest. I marked her time spent doing that under non core hours. My son has spent much time taking care of our chickens and overseeing the flock and learning what their needs are – this is animal husbandry.

Announcing the 50 States Scrapbook

For those of you looking for a place to scrapbook everything you will learn about the 50 states this is the place to put it. Each scrapbook pages contains a place to:

1. Place the name of the state at the top of the page.
2. Draw the state or paste a picture of the state, the bird, the flower, and the flag.  (Amazon.com carries a  50 State Cartridge for the Cricut)
3. A place to write down facts such as the type of agriculture, famous American, state motto, capital, and main industry.
4. A place to write a small paragraph of interesting facts about the state that were learned.

Summertime Dilemma

Now that school is out for those of us who don’t school year round the summertime dilemma has hit our family. I don’t know if it is a universal problem but it is a real one for us. The minute school is out and the day is free the snipping, arguing, restless children arrive. I, for one, am glad to be done with planning and scheduling but I soon find that this restless behavior drives me crazy. 

So, lets hear it…what are some fun things your family does during the summer that doesn’t cost a fortune? We don’t live near the big city so things like the zoo and museums are out unfortunately.

A Daily Schedule is not your enemy

The more a family grows the more the need for a schedule becomes apparent. Daily schedules are one of the key components to having a successful homeschool day with your children.  It sure would have been helpful knowing this little bit of information back when I first started homeschooling.  It seemed like such an unimportant detail until I constantly found myself behind with housework/chores or behind with teaching. I spent several grumpy years fluttering like a butterfly from flower to flower – always in a hurry but never feeling like I was accomplishing very much.

Then one day I came across this awesome website called Flylady. It was an eye opener for me.  Daily school teaching was easy because I knew that I could just open my curriculum and do what was lined out for me to do that day but housework was a different story. I was a terrible housekeeper especially trying to focus on homeschooling and taking care of small children’s needs.  There just never seemed to be the time to clean up.  Until Flylady! When I ran across her website I got so excited.  It was like a curriculum book for cleaning your house and it didn’t take much time everyday. Granted there is a lot of stuff to wade through on the website but her daily email reminders got me on the right track for scheduling my housework. I don’t use her daily routines anymore because she taught me how to take care of my home. 

Most of all I learned at this time that a schedule is the key to a successful and pleasant day. When I schedule school I make sure to schedule my housework as well and I make sure that I am not responsible for all of it – every child helps with some task. Now I’m not embarrassed if someone pops in unexpectedly because I know that everything is tidy and dusted.

Integrity & Logging the Hours

Logging hours has definitely sparked the conversation over at the Well Trained Mind Forum.  A few of them actually referenced my blog on logging the hours either by actual hours spent or by the credit hour method.  

One of the main issues that I saw arise regarding the hours was the issue of integrity. Some were dismayed with the credit hour system; seeing it as an easy way to get an hour out of five minutes of instruction.  However, a closer investigation of the definition of the phrase “credit hour” might be in order for those who have issues with this method or are abusing it.  

I hate to track back to public school since the reason so many of us are homeschooling is for the lack of education received there.  However, during my public school career I remember two things very clearly.  During the hour allotted for us to learn a particular subject some of us where faster than others in our assignments. Some of us got to take out our colors or library books as others still pressed their way through the assignment hour. Everyone learned the allotted lesson for that day, the teacher fulfilled her duty, and the students worked with their assignments until completed.  Some had to take it home and finish it and some got to go home and play instead.

Regarding credit hours in the homeschool we may find similiar logic being followed. The days lesson is presented, the child excels and completes the lesson.  It took 30 minutes all together even though you have an hour of  time allotted.  The “hour” is marked. However, the next day, the lesson is presented. The child lacks understanding – you work together; extra problems are added for demonstration, a different approach to the method is tried and success attained. You look at the clock and it has been 1 and a half hours. You pick up the log book and the “hour” is marked. At least, this is how I do it.  When the lesson runs short as it does sometimes than extra practice or review is added to the days lesson.  Most of the time, however, as many homeschooling families can tell you that time gets made up for.  Why do I use credit hours??? Because I’m TERRIBLE at keeping track of minutes, I’m homeschooling 4 children and taking care of a toddler and I’m expecting again.  I would literally drive myself insane trying to log in and log off time for each one of my children as I teach. This way I KNOW this is the hour for language, this is the hour for math, this is the hour for reading….you get the picture.

The debate between actual hours recorded and the credit hour method in this instance isn’t actually the issue.  The issue lay with the integrity of the homeschooling parent.  It would be just as easy for me to cheat writing down my minutes as it would be for writing down credit hours.  If you are interested in credit hours simply because you want more on the logs  for less work than your child may be better off not to be homeschooled.  However, most homeschooling families I know want to give their children the best education possible.  Each of us have our own theories on how we do that, we each have our personalities, and each of us have different family situations and demands on our time.  

Let each of us remember our reason for homeschooling is the EDUCATION of our children and act with integrity as we teach.